The Female Perspective: Seeing Both Sides
Unit: Seven / Semester 2
Duration: 5 weeks (20 days)
Textual Materials:
1. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (novel)
2. Emily Dickenson’s “Because I Could Not Stop For Death (712),” “I am Nobody! Who are you? (288)” and “I’m ceded – I’ve stopped being Theirs (508). (poetry)
3. Joy Harjo’s “She Had Some Horses,” “Deer Dancer,” and “The Woman Who Fell From the Sky” (poetry)
4. Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People” (short stories)
5. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (short story)
Rationale:
Females were, for many years, an under-represented group in the literary world, and today there are still far less female-authored books in the canon than male-authored. The female voice is an important one to consider when looking at the literature that defines America. A woman being able to publish her work is not a privilege not given in every country, so the fact that America can claim many women writers is special within itself. Beyond that, the female voice is one that can not only tell stories of oppression, but also stories that one could even see a man writing. It is important for students to understand that there are both successful male writers and successful female writers. Both genders are capable of creating quality literature, and each brings to the table a different perspective. This unit will not only have cultural significance, but also literary significance. Students often read texts from various points throughout history that are written by a man, and I want them to broaden their view and read stories from similar time frames that come from a different perspective. Roughly half of the world’s population is female, so I believe it is important for students to experience literature written in the perspective of this half of the world as well. The goal of this unit is to give students the opportunity to study some novels written by and about women that they might otherwise not have been exposed to because these works are not considered part of the literary canon.
The major works in this unit will be the novel The Awakening, poems by Emily Dickenson, Sylvia Plath, and Joy Harjo, and short stories by Flannery O’Connor as well as “The Yellow Wallpaper.” These selections will provide students with a variety of genres and time periods for study. Students will be provided with a survey of literature written from the American female perspective and be asked to consider questions such as how do the stories written by women differ from those written by men? How are they similar? What do you gain by reading stories written from multiple perspectives? Were there common threads regarding the female experience that you found across multiple works? Some might argue to remove some of these authors from the curriculum because the content of their writing deals with because of the content includes subjects like murder and suicide in some cases, but these qualities make it even more important that students study this literature. This unit responds “the the psychological needs of students. Literature often deals with common human experiences about the pressures, changes, dilemmas, aspirations, [and] conflicts” that surround them every day in the world. To avoid teaching literature that includes hard topics would be doing my students a disservice.
Works Cited
Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English By Design. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.
Goals:
By the end of the unit, my students will...
-Understand the struggles women in American have gone through by learning about their experience through a variety of genres including a novel, poetry, and short stories.
-Students will recognize how the struggles of women are different and similar to the struggles of other minority groups.
-Students will create a film adaptation of one of the short stories to show their understanding of the story.
By the end of the unit, I as an educator will...
-Brush up on my technology and movie-making skills so I can assist my students in the making of their movies.
Standards:
· CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.
· CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
· CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
· CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
· CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
Activities:
1. Webquest: Students will create a webquest for the five female authors we study in this unit. (One-fifth of the class for each author.) Students will research these authors and create their own individual pages that include biographical information, a list of popular works, and the style of writing she pursued. Students should also include images. All sources must be cited. This activity will give students an introduction to informational writing like research papers, an assignment they will probably be exposed to their senior year.
2. Double-Column Response Log: Students will divide the pages of their notebooks in two. On the left is of each page they will record significant passages from The Awakening, and on the right side they will include at least one question and/or comment. Below are the four kinds of responses:
-Ask open-ended questions that would help you understand the passage better.
-Give your personal response to the passage (i.e., any thoughts you have in connection with it.)
-Give your personal evaluation of the passage.
-Think through a possible interpretation of the passage.
(This activity is adapted from Smagorinsky’s Teaching English By Design, and more on this activity can be found on pages 22-23.)
3. Novel study guide card: For this activity, students will be creating something that looks a lot like a homemade card, only it will be all about a novel they have read, in this case, The Awakening. On the front, they will write the title and either draw or print out pictures to decorate the front. These pictures should be images that the student connects to the story. The inside will provide basic information about the author and the novel, major quotes, basic description of main characters, themes, important words related to the work, and questions that this novel raised for them. (See the pictures in misc. for an example.)
(This activity is adapted from Ms. Boni's 12th Grade English AP class.)
Culminating texts:
The culminating text for this unit will be group film presentations. Students will divide up into groups of 4 or 5 and adapt one of the short stories from this unit into a film. Students may make their films into a parody, a serious production, or somewhere in-between. I will also encourage boys to the play female roles and vice versa. One of best performances I’ve seen was a rendition of “Twelfth Night” for which the entire cast was women. Women played both the female and male roles. Students should feel free to be as creative as possible and make this assignment their own. There will be some planning and filming time in class, but some of the work will need to be done outside of class.
Assessments:
1. The film presentation will be the main assessment for this unit and will happen similar to that of the book club groups. All students must show active participation in the planning and filming of the video. Students will also fill out a self-evaluation where they will state specifically how they contributed to the group’s project and also voice any concerns they have about any of their peers. Students will also be asked to individually fill out a Short Story Reading Notes handout (found in misc.) for each of the short stories we read.
2. The second form of assessment for this unit will be a poem analysis essay. This essay will be a short (about 2 pages double-spaced) where the student picks a poem by Emily Dickenson or Joy Harjo (that we haven’t studied in class) and answers the following questions:
a. Who is the speaker?
b. What is the purpose of the poem?
c. What is the underlying meaning?
d. What is the rhyme scheme?
e. How does the arrangement of the words relate to what the poem is about?
f. What images are conjured for you and how do they give meaning to the poem?
g. What literary devices do you recognize?
h. What is the tone of the poem?
i. What is the mood of the poem?
We will go over these various poetic elements in class with the poems listed above so students will be prepared to answer these questions for a new poem on their own.
Miscellaneous:
Handout:
Short Story Reading Notes
Story Title:________________________ Author:__________________________
I. Plot Analysis: Five elements of plot
A. Exposition: What is the time, place, mood? What is your initial impression of the characters?
B. Conflict: What is the main conflict in the story? Give an example from the action.
C. Complication: List three changes that help move the action.
D. Climax: What is the turning point of the story and why?
E. Denouement: What happens at the end of the story? Is it open or closed? Why? Is the conflict resolved or unresolved? Why? What is the effect of the ending?
II. Characters: List and briefly describe the main characters. Why do they act as they do? Do they change/learn? Why or why not?
III. Literary Techniques: List three different techniques, give an example, and explain how it adds to meaning.
A.
B.
C.
IV. Theme: What is the main idea/point the author is making through the characters and action?
V. Vocabulary: List and define (use the meaning from the context of the story or look up in a dictionary) unfamiliar words. List between five and ten words.
(Handout adapted from Mr. Pauls’ 10th grade English class.)
Novel Study Guide Card Example:
1. Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (novel)
2. Emily Dickenson’s “Because I Could Not Stop For Death (712),” “I am Nobody! Who are you? (288)” and “I’m ceded – I’ve stopped being Theirs (508). (poetry)
3. Joy Harjo’s “She Had Some Horses,” “Deer Dancer,” and “The Woman Who Fell From the Sky” (poetry)
4. Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People” (short stories)
5. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (short story)
Rationale:
Females were, for many years, an under-represented group in the literary world, and today there are still far less female-authored books in the canon than male-authored. The female voice is an important one to consider when looking at the literature that defines America. A woman being able to publish her work is not a privilege not given in every country, so the fact that America can claim many women writers is special within itself. Beyond that, the female voice is one that can not only tell stories of oppression, but also stories that one could even see a man writing. It is important for students to understand that there are both successful male writers and successful female writers. Both genders are capable of creating quality literature, and each brings to the table a different perspective. This unit will not only have cultural significance, but also literary significance. Students often read texts from various points throughout history that are written by a man, and I want them to broaden their view and read stories from similar time frames that come from a different perspective. Roughly half of the world’s population is female, so I believe it is important for students to experience literature written in the perspective of this half of the world as well. The goal of this unit is to give students the opportunity to study some novels written by and about women that they might otherwise not have been exposed to because these works are not considered part of the literary canon.
The major works in this unit will be the novel The Awakening, poems by Emily Dickenson, Sylvia Plath, and Joy Harjo, and short stories by Flannery O’Connor as well as “The Yellow Wallpaper.” These selections will provide students with a variety of genres and time periods for study. Students will be provided with a survey of literature written from the American female perspective and be asked to consider questions such as how do the stories written by women differ from those written by men? How are they similar? What do you gain by reading stories written from multiple perspectives? Were there common threads regarding the female experience that you found across multiple works? Some might argue to remove some of these authors from the curriculum because the content of their writing deals with because of the content includes subjects like murder and suicide in some cases, but these qualities make it even more important that students study this literature. This unit responds “the the psychological needs of students. Literature often deals with common human experiences about the pressures, changes, dilemmas, aspirations, [and] conflicts” that surround them every day in the world. To avoid teaching literature that includes hard topics would be doing my students a disservice.
Works Cited
Smagorinsky, Peter. Teaching English By Design. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2008. Print.
Goals:
By the end of the unit, my students will...
-Understand the struggles women in American have gone through by learning about their experience through a variety of genres including a novel, poetry, and short stories.
-Students will recognize how the struggles of women are different and similar to the struggles of other minority groups.
-Students will create a film adaptation of one of the short stories to show their understanding of the story.
By the end of the unit, I as an educator will...
-Brush up on my technology and movie-making skills so I can assist my students in the making of their movies.
Standards:
· CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful.
· CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact.
· CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
· CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.2 Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.
· CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
Activities:
1. Webquest: Students will create a webquest for the five female authors we study in this unit. (One-fifth of the class for each author.) Students will research these authors and create their own individual pages that include biographical information, a list of popular works, and the style of writing she pursued. Students should also include images. All sources must be cited. This activity will give students an introduction to informational writing like research papers, an assignment they will probably be exposed to their senior year.
2. Double-Column Response Log: Students will divide the pages of their notebooks in two. On the left is of each page they will record significant passages from The Awakening, and on the right side they will include at least one question and/or comment. Below are the four kinds of responses:
-Ask open-ended questions that would help you understand the passage better.
-Give your personal response to the passage (i.e., any thoughts you have in connection with it.)
-Give your personal evaluation of the passage.
-Think through a possible interpretation of the passage.
(This activity is adapted from Smagorinsky’s Teaching English By Design, and more on this activity can be found on pages 22-23.)
3. Novel study guide card: For this activity, students will be creating something that looks a lot like a homemade card, only it will be all about a novel they have read, in this case, The Awakening. On the front, they will write the title and either draw or print out pictures to decorate the front. These pictures should be images that the student connects to the story. The inside will provide basic information about the author and the novel, major quotes, basic description of main characters, themes, important words related to the work, and questions that this novel raised for them. (See the pictures in misc. for an example.)
(This activity is adapted from Ms. Boni's 12th Grade English AP class.)
Culminating texts:
The culminating text for this unit will be group film presentations. Students will divide up into groups of 4 or 5 and adapt one of the short stories from this unit into a film. Students may make their films into a parody, a serious production, or somewhere in-between. I will also encourage boys to the play female roles and vice versa. One of best performances I’ve seen was a rendition of “Twelfth Night” for which the entire cast was women. Women played both the female and male roles. Students should feel free to be as creative as possible and make this assignment their own. There will be some planning and filming time in class, but some of the work will need to be done outside of class.
Assessments:
1. The film presentation will be the main assessment for this unit and will happen similar to that of the book club groups. All students must show active participation in the planning and filming of the video. Students will also fill out a self-evaluation where they will state specifically how they contributed to the group’s project and also voice any concerns they have about any of their peers. Students will also be asked to individually fill out a Short Story Reading Notes handout (found in misc.) for each of the short stories we read.
2. The second form of assessment for this unit will be a poem analysis essay. This essay will be a short (about 2 pages double-spaced) where the student picks a poem by Emily Dickenson or Joy Harjo (that we haven’t studied in class) and answers the following questions:
a. Who is the speaker?
b. What is the purpose of the poem?
c. What is the underlying meaning?
d. What is the rhyme scheme?
e. How does the arrangement of the words relate to what the poem is about?
f. What images are conjured for you and how do they give meaning to the poem?
g. What literary devices do you recognize?
h. What is the tone of the poem?
i. What is the mood of the poem?
We will go over these various poetic elements in class with the poems listed above so students will be prepared to answer these questions for a new poem on their own.
Miscellaneous:
Handout:
Short Story Reading Notes
Story Title:________________________ Author:__________________________
I. Plot Analysis: Five elements of plot
A. Exposition: What is the time, place, mood? What is your initial impression of the characters?
B. Conflict: What is the main conflict in the story? Give an example from the action.
C. Complication: List three changes that help move the action.
D. Climax: What is the turning point of the story and why?
E. Denouement: What happens at the end of the story? Is it open or closed? Why? Is the conflict resolved or unresolved? Why? What is the effect of the ending?
II. Characters: List and briefly describe the main characters. Why do they act as they do? Do they change/learn? Why or why not?
III. Literary Techniques: List three different techniques, give an example, and explain how it adds to meaning.
A.
B.
C.
IV. Theme: What is the main idea/point the author is making through the characters and action?
V. Vocabulary: List and define (use the meaning from the context of the story or look up in a dictionary) unfamiliar words. List between five and ten words.
(Handout adapted from Mr. Pauls’ 10th grade English class.)
Novel Study Guide Card Example: